Electron device



April 2, 1940. H. E. HOLLMANN ELECTRON DEVICE Filed April 27, 1957 Mom/LA TIA/6 Pars/mm.

INVENTOR HANS E. HOLLMA/V/V POTENTIAL I stf $$K *I I I :-.1

C0 TROL- ATTORNEY Patented A a z, 1940 Hans E. Hollmann, Berlin, Germany,- assignor to Teleflmken 'Gesellschaft fiir Drahtlose Telegraphic m. b. H., Berlin,'Germany, a corporation, of Germany Application April 27,1937, Serial No. 139,158

, i In Germany April as, 1936 12 Claims. (01. 259-46) This invention relates to electron devices and in particular to electronic oscillators in which transversal oscillation energy of the electrons is separated from the kinetic motion energy to produce induction currents in contradistinction to convection or displacement currents.

This invention is related to and is an improvement of my copending application Serial No. 127,343, filed February 24, 1937, and. entitled Electronic systems.

A number of suggestions have been disclosed in the recent art of amplification, generation and frequency multiplication of electrical oscillations to abandon the principle incorporated in the standard electronic tubes, namely, what has been called longitudinal space-charge control by the aid of a control grid interposed in the discharge path or by the aid of a magnetic field acting, as

it were, as an "immaterialized (non-physical) electrode, in order to' obviate the failure of these control methods which. become more and more evident in proportion as the rate of variationof the control actions comes closer to the velocity of the electronic motions, and thereby solve all of the difllculties and drawbacks associated therewith. Fundamentally speaking, to replacethe longitudinal-control principle there is available the transversal control action adapted to be brought upon a filamentary, ribbon or diskshaped electron jet, or pencil. The latter, by ways and means known from the oscillograph art, is deflected out of its original direction by the voltage of current to be controlled, by electrostatic or electromagnetic n'reans,,and thus caused to experience transversal oscillations. Wherethe electrostatic control action is used, deflector plates between which the pencil or jet is passed, play the part of the conventional control grid, while where magnetic control action is relied upon, coils or loops of wire are made to play the part of the control grid in the electronic tube. Now, in order that the oscillation energy contained in the transversal oscillations of the pencil may be re-converted into current or voltage variations, or, in .other words, in order to detach the said oscillation energy from the penoil,.recourse may be had to several ways and means.

The simplest and oldest method is to cause the pencil to impinge upon two metallic collector or absorber electrodes rather than make it impact upon a fluorescent screen'as in the oscillographic art, in such a fashion that, when in its quiescent state the pencil will just strike uniformly both electrodes or will pass through between thein.

As soon as the pencil is caused to deflect out of the said normal or quiescent position, the electronic current will,flow over to either of the two collector or absorber electrodes or the anodes and the same is thus made available in the form of useful energy across any desired outside resistance or load, or be converted into voltages for further uses. Itis true that at the present state of the art of electron optics, remarkably high current-voltage response and sensitiveness is obl0 tainable, but the scheme proves a failure when- 1 ever very high frequencies are employed for the reason that at the joint between the two anodes,

' blurring or obliteration ofthe space-charges is occasioned, especially as a result of secondary electron production, and this tends to impair a clean and well-defined distribution of the current.

These drawbacks are avoidable if the oscillatory energy contained in the transversal oscillations of the electron pencil is separated from the -which does not carry high-frequency. energy,

pied from the anode by an electrostatic crosskinetic motion energy of the electrons in the' pencil. To this end thesuggestion has been made to collect or impact the, pencil upon an anode 25 with the result that the kinetic energy of the ele'ctronsfis converted and dissipated thereon in the form of heat, while the transversal energy of the electron oscillations is detached or uncou- 'field. Such a cross-field arrangement, for instance, may be built in such a way that the penoil a short distance ahead of its end, that is, at a point a small distance before. it impacts upon the said anode, is made to traverse between two additional transversal plates so that these act as anodes properly so-called although they are not struck or impacted bythe electrons contained in the jet. The anode currents which the pencil lever, that is tosay, the amplitude with which the electrons of the pencil oscillate through the-detaching field. The voltages inthus arise in the anode plates are displacement currents rather than convection currents, and they are produced by virtue of influence actions of the pencil charges oscillating between the detachment plates. If a high frequency potential is impressed upon the deflector plates, then highfrequency potentials of the same frequency maybe obtained at the detachment plates, and the amplification, in the presence of unvarying frequency, is a function of the geometric ratio of.

duced in the detachment plates may be fed back to'the deflector plates properly so-called so that the scheme may be rendered self-oscillatory, Drovided that the phase balance ismade positive by 1 suitable disposition of the excited circuits and by convenient adjustment. of the ultradynamic phase shift in the interior of the tube.

This arrangement whose efilciency and performance is unlimited even if the frequency is driven higher and higer, involves a certain difllc'ulty, however, for while the tube is capable of ent invention in that the high-frequency energy contained in the oscillating electron jet is uncoupled or detached by electromagnetic means rather than electrostatically, or, in other words.

the detaching is insured by virtue of induction rather than influence actions. Hence, according I to the invention, it is not the moved electrical field, but the magnetic field, whose force-lines surround the electronic pencil in the form of concentric rings, which furnishes the useful energy made available in the anode circuit.

Turning now to the drawing in which, Fig. 1 shows schematically one embodiment of my invention;

Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show modifications of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 useful for the generation of ultra-high frequencies; and

Figs. 5 and 6 show further modifications of the embodiments shown in Fig. 1, while Fig. '7 shows a modification using electromagnetic deflection; the invention will be described In detail.

In order to describe more clearly the principle underlying the invention based upon a magnetic uncoupling action, the scheme shall be described in more detail by reference to Fig. 1 showing a semi-perspective view of the arrangement. The heated cathode K and a convenient electronoptic imaging system A1, A: furnish a filamentary electron jet E. Shortly after its emergence from As, the pencil traverses the high-frequency transversal field set up by the control potential En impressed across the two plates P1 and P2- with the result that the pencil is deflected thereby'in the plane of the drawing so that it reciprocates between the two limiting positions indicated by E1 and E2. At a little distance from P the pencil enters into the uncoupling or detachment coil 8 where it is caught on the anode A3. mounted inside the said coil. In order to insure unimpeded entrance or penetration of the. pencil into the coil, an aperture 0 is provided in the bottom face thereof. As the pencil experiences excursions or oscillations between the said two limiting posi-.

tions E1 and E2, the left-hand and the right-hand longitudinally extending wires of coil S will be more or less enveloped by the magnetic forcelines which surround or shroud the pencil with the consequent result that voltages will be induced in the various conductors in accordance with'the Blot-Bayard law. Contradistinct to the above-described electrostatic uncoupling method, the inner resistance of the new arrangement here disclosed is very low, that is, equal to the ohmic and inductive resistance of the induction coil so that comparatively strong currents may be derived therefrom.

According to the law of induction, the induced potentials are a direct function of the variation of the magnetic force-lines cutting the various conductors per unit of time, in other 'words. if

the pencil current is constant, the same is a function of the velocity at which the magnetic 'fleld moves in reference to the stationary conductors. In the presence of a given deflection amplitude, the said velocity, in turn, is directly proportional to the frequency. Under static conditions, that is to say, if the pencil is constantly deflected out of its normal or quiescent position by means of a D. 0. potential applied to the plates P1 and P2. the. tube will fail to work entirely, inversely, the voltages induced in S rise to so much higher values, the higher the working frequency of the tube.

, In View of the extremely feeble magnetic fields which the electron pencil sets up around itself (whose current strength is of an order of magnitude of some milliamperes), the practical application of the new tube would primarily be inside the ultra-short-wave field that is to say, the very. field in which standard tubes fail to operate for the reasons set forth in the preamble. However, this means that the tube in so far as its construction is concerned, should be designed so as to measure up to the requirements of this frequency spectrum. A multi-turn coil of the kind shown in Fig. 1 .would be prohibitive completely because of its high inductance, in fact, it is imperative that the conductors disposed upon both sides of the electron pencil should be in the form of simple wire loops, and they should be connected together to form convenient useful circuits with due regard for the non-quasi-stationary distribution of current and potential.

An arrangement designed from the said viewpoint is shown, for instance, in Fig. 2. The electron pencil deilected in the control field Pr-Pa impinges upon the anode A3, while a short distance before this happens the pencil passes through between the two conductors S1 and S2, which, with interposition of two annular loops or clips L1 and La are united to result in a bilaterally to M2 or multiplesthereof. By the action of the currents induced along the length of the conductors S1 and S: which constitute the shortcircuiting bridge pieces of the Lecher-wire line, the latter is caused to oscillate so that a voltage loop (anti-node) is set up in the center thereof. From this point the HF energy, by the aid of an energy line coupled thereto may be fed to any desired consumer or load, or be fed back to the deflector plates B1 and P2 with a view to causing self-oscillation.

A simpler arrangement designed for inductive excitation of a Lecher-wire system is shown in Fig. 3. -In'thisscheme the electron pencil is made to oscillate directly between the two wires L1 and In of the Lecher system, while being drained at the same time by the anode A: designed to form a terminal bridge. Fig. 4 shows in what way this arrangement may be designed to act as a regeneratively connected generator or oscillator by that the two Lecher wires L1 and 'Lu conjointly with the deflector plates Pr and P constitute an oscillable system by which the induced output potentials are re-used for defies? tion and control of the jet.

The phase relations of the feedback-potential must be set in accordance with the ultra-dynamic phase shifts occurring in the tube. The same finite transit time o! the electrons between the deflection field and the uncoupling coil. Inasmuch as' it is here possible to choose at will the said ultradynamic phase angle byv proper choice or the pencil velocity, that is to say, the anode potential, no definite outer feedback scheme is imposed, in fact, fundamentally speaking any desired organization in which the output potentialwith any desired phase at all is returned wholly. or partly to the deflector plates, may be caused to become self-oscillatory as long as there results a positive balance of energy.

In Fig. 5 is finally shown an arrangement which, according to the invention, furnishes a frequency twice that with which the pencil is deflected. This scheme distinguishes itseli from the arrangements before mentioned in that the induction conductors L1 and La are disposed outside rather than inside the plane of oscillation of the pencil. to be more precise, in such a way that the pencil when in quiescent state, passes through between them. Upon each excursion of the pencil towards the right and the left-hand side, and also upon the subsequent return to the quiescent position, positive and negative currents will beinduced in the two conductors L1 and La, "that is to say, full periods are induced therein seeing that each time the conductors leave the.

magnetic field of force and re-enter into the same. If, then, the jet is subject to sinuous deflections, each deflection period will comprise two full periods of the induction current. It above and below the plane of oscillation of the electron pencil, several,conductors spaced suitable distances apart are disposed, then, in lieu of simple frequency doubling, any desired frequency multiplication is obtainable. To describe this scheme more fully, reference is made to'Fig. 6 in which the number of deflector plates is raised. The four induction rods or conductors are here connected together to result in two oscillation systems.

In the exemplified embodiments hereinabove disclosed, electrostatic pencil deflection by the aid of atransverse field set up between the plates P1 and Pa has been provided, but it will be understood that magnetic cross-control would iulflll the same purpose. In lieu of the sheets P1 and P: there would have to be used in such a case wire loops similar to those previously suggested for inductive uncoupling. Preferably alsothe control circuit would then be given the form 01 a lecherwire line whose short-circuiting bridges extend parallel to the pencil and cause'deflection oi the the resonated portion of the produced induced currents.

desired point,- The regulation or modulation of the' anode potential is less advisable for the reason that the phase conditions are .disturbed'and affected by variations in the electron transit times, with the consequence thatundesirable irequency fluctuations will be occasioned. A preterable plan is to regulate or control the intensity of the pencil current which is readily accomplishable by electron-optic means and ways, say, by the aid of a Wehnelt cylinder. "However, the arrangements hereinbeiore described allow a particularly simple solution of what may be called a mechanical modulation in that the electron penoil by means of a distinctdeflector system acting P: which is impressed with at right angles to Pi 3 regulator or modulator potential is deflected out of its plane 01' oscillation. As a result the pencil is caused to recede from the induction wire, say, from L1 and La, Fig. 4, and the magnetic fleld embracing the conductors and thus the production of oscillations becomes smaller.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

1. The method of producing oscillatory electrical currents which comprises the steps of producing a beam of electrons, deflecting'the beam of electrons, producing induction currents by the deflected beam oi electrons, and utilizing a portion of the produced induction currents to deflect further the produced beam of electrons- 2. The method of producing oscillatory electrical currents which comprises the steps or producing a beam of electrons, deflecting the beam of electrons, producing induction currents by the deflected beam of electrons, and regeneratively deflecting further the beam of produced electrons by a portion of the produced induction currents.

deflecting the beam of electrons, producing induction currents by the deflected beam 01' electrons, and regeneratively deflecting further the beam oi. produced electrons by a portion of the produced induction currents.

5. The method-oi producing electrically oscillatory currents which comprises the steps of producing a beam of electrons, deflecting the produced beam of electrons, producing induction currents by. the deflected beam of electrons, and resonating a portion of the produced induction currents and regeneratively deflecting further the produced beam or electrons by the resonated portion of the produced induced currents.

6. The method of producing electrically oscillatory currents which comprises the steps of. producing a beam of electrons, electrostatically de-" fleeting the produced beamof electrons, producing induction currents by thedeflected beam of electrons, and resonating a portion'oi the pro-- duced induction currents and regeneratively deflecting further the produced beam of electrons by 7. The method of operating an electronic device which comprises producing a flow of electrons, focusing and accelerating the produced flow of electrons to produce a beam of electrons, deflecting the producedbeam 01' electrons, producing induction currents by the deflected beam of electrons, regeneratively deflecting further the beam oiUelectrons by'a portion of the produced induction currents, and varying the acceleration of the electrons in accordance with modulating energy.-

8. The method of operating an electronic device which comprises producing a flow of electrons,

focusing and accelerating the produced flow 01 electrons to produce a beamof electrons, deflecting the produced beam of electrons, producing induction currents by the deflected beam of elec-' trons, regeneratively' deflecting iurther'the beam of electrons by a portion of the produced induction currents, and-varying the number or elec currents from-the produced beam or electrons.

and transmission line means to feed back a por- 16 tion oi the produced induction currents to the deflecting means to produce further deflection of the beam of electrons.

. 510548.. .trons from the source in accordance with modua beam of l ctrons. means to deflect the of electrons. means to produce induction currents from the produced beam of electrons,

sndircsoniiifline means to feed back a portion ILAnelectronicsystemcomprlsin: meansto,

ottlie produeedinddction currents to the deflectins means to produce further deflection of the nfoelecmmfimfljfi v N 13'. An'eiectronic system comprising means to Pr duce-'1! 0! electrons, meansgto deflect the been: of. electrons, means to produce induction p odu ed beam of electrons, resonant line means to feed.

back a 'o; tneproduced induction currents to the to produce further deflection-o'l or electrons. 

